1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, such as a copier, a facsimile machine, a printer, or a multifunction peripheral (MFP) having functions of at least two of these devices, that develops a latent image on an image bearer to form a toner image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrophotographic image forming apparatuses that transfer a toner image formed on a photoconductor serving as an image bearer onto a recording medium, such as a sheet, have been known. Such an image forming apparatus includes a cleaning device that removes residual toner remaining on the photoconductor after the image is transferred. Furthermore, image forming apparatuses that transfer a toner image formed on a photoconductor to an intermediate transfer member, such as an intermediate transfer belt, as primary transfer, and subsequently transfer the toner image borne on the intermediate transfer belt through the primary transfer onto a recording medium, such as a sheet, as secondary transfer have been known. Such an image forming apparatus includes cleaning devices that remove residual toner remaining on the photoconductor and the intermediate transfer belt after the primary transfer and the secondary transfer are completed.
In some cases, the residual toner removed by the cleaning device may be returned to a developing device and may be reused. However, in many cases, the residual toner is accumulated, as waste toner, by a waste toner collecting device to a waste toner container provided at an appropriate position in a main body of the apparatus. In particular, in the case of color image forming apparatuses, toner collected from the intermediate transfer belt include toner of different colors, so that all of the toner is not returned to and reused by the developing device or the like, but is conveyed to and accumulated in, as waste toner, a waste toner container.
In an image forming apparatus including the waste toner container, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2010-127989, if the waste toner container is filled with toner, machines need to be stopped in order to replace the waste toner container with new one. It is advantageous if the frequency of replacement of the waste toner container can be reduced. Therefore, there is a need to increase the capacity of the waste toner container and practical implementation has been performed. However, if the size of the waste toner container is increased, an installation space is increased and handling in attaching and detaching the waste toner container may become difficult. Therefore, a guide is arranged on a support member of the waste toner container in an attachment/detachment direction of the waste toner container so that the waste toner container can be attached and detached easily.
However, a larger guide is needed for a larger waste toner container, so that the size of the support member also increases with an increase in the size of the support member.
Therefore, there is a need to provide an image forming apparatus that can cope with the above disadvantages and that enables to easily attach and detach the waste toner container without increasing the size of a positioning member even when the size of the waste toner container is increased.